Tomo Fujita

Tomo Fujita is currently an Associate Professor at Berklee. His most famous student is John Mayer whom Tomo introduced to Pickboy picks.

"In my private lessons and blues/funk labs, I teach fundamental techniques for playing good music—getting a good tone from the guitar and keeping a good rhythm. But I try to teach something more valuable for the future, so I really emphasize feeling. Especially in blues playing, I emphasize expression, tone, and time. Sometimes these simple things are really difficult to achieve with quality and detail. So I teach a lot of grooves and rhythm."

"After I graduated from Berklee, I was interested in discovering more about the blues. I listened to all the records of B.B. King and T-Bone Walker, and I started playing with blues bands. I could play blues technically, but emotionally I couldn't connect myself to the music. I tried to connect my soul with the guitar, to get away from any theory or technique, to stop thinking too much. I started playing gospel music at a Baptist church every Sunday. There were no charts; for every song, all I got was the key. It taught me a lot about feeling, and I thought, 'That's really what music is all about.' You hear things, and you have to feel things."